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Beautiful birds..........

It was almost acting like spring the other day (warm and sunny), and some of the birds showed up. The first pic is of a male northern parula. It just showed up in the past couple of the years. (I think because of climate change we're starting to get different birds stay through the summer).
The second pic is of a male golden crowned kinglet.
I love birdwatching!

Very pretty! Those would be unusual around here. My birder friends have told me that tax day is just about when the hummingbirds return here, Past years that has been very close, although we've had a cool spring.

My youngest studies ornithology. Yesterday he took off 2 hours to the north because there have been reports of Burrowing Owls setting up a home in a field. He went in 34 degree weather to watch all day for those owls to make an appearance (they didn't) but he did get to add a few other birds to his yearly count and lifetime count.

About 2 a.m. I was awoken by a Barred Owl not 8 feet from my bedroom window calling "who cooks for you". It was so close you could hear the vibration in his call. We watched him for 20 min. before he glided off to the front yard and then beyond.

Youngest and I hiked last week (when it was warmer) to a spot where he knew we'd see some parulas and that was a first for me (in recognizing them). That little kinglet is so pretty. I love any bird with a bit of yellow. We've had "swarms" of goldfinches on the move. There must of been 60 in my yard on saturday.

Thanks everyone.
Float On........Wow! What a great field to study! I would probably see lots more different birds, if I moved, but that's not in the plan. I've heard that the snowy owl has been spotted in northern Indiana this year.....but I doubt it would ever come this far south. I have a friend in southern Illinois who put up a barn owl house and immediately got a family of barn owls! I've never seen one of those either. Mostly, around here, we have barred and great horned. When we first moved here we had screech owls, but haven't heard them in years. If I had to do my life over, I think ornithology would be a great thing to study! Has your son always been interested in birds?

I saw 2 male towhees this morning. They started showing up about 10 years ago. I think a lot had to do with us letting our property grow up..........lots of habitat now.
Good luck to your son! What a cool thing to study!

Thanks everyone.
Float On........Wow! What a great field to study! I would probably see lots more different birds, if I moved, but that's not in the plan. I've heard that the snowy owl has been spotted in northern Indiana this year.....but I doubt it would ever come this far south. I have a friend in southern Illinois who put up a barn owl house and immediately got a family of barn owls! I've never seen one of those either. Mostly, around here, we have barred and great horned. When we first moved here we had screech owls, but haven't heard them in years. If I had to do my life over, I think ornithology would be a great thing to study! Has your son always been interested in birds?

I saw 2 male towhees this morning. They started showing up about 10 years ago. I think a lot had to do with us letting our property grow up..........lots of habitat now.
Good luck to your son! What a cool thing to study!

Yes, he has. And I was amazed when he was 7 or 8 and knew a lot of the Latin names. Did you know Barn Owls were recently put on the endangered list? So cool your friend had a family move in. My one memory of Barn Owls was on a small iron bridge when a family swooped in and sat on the rails of the bridge and we watched by the headlights of the car. I think I was 5 or 6.
We put up an owl house I think when he was 10 but never had any owls check it out. I noticed the other day the bottom fell out of it so we either need to climb up there and fix or remove. The snowy owls come down as far as north MO in cold winters. We've seen them on my parent's farm. No sighting this year though. We had a family of screech owls raise their young and they'd swoop onto a tree branch just outside the big garage door to watch us blow glass. That was a cool season.

That IS cool! One summer my son and I drove my electric golf cart around, around dusk, following a family of barred owls around the property. I get so excited when I start to hear them at night. Have you ever heard them really get going, talking to each other? They sound like a bunch of monkeys in the jungle! A couple years ago, I could hear an adult great horned owl with it's "child". They would talk back and forth.

I thought of putting up a barn owl house, but I don't think they're around here.
I think you're probably in a great birding area, right? I wish I had lots more land around me and was further away from civilization.

This spring I got to watch a peregrine falcon fly along the river bank. I imagine he was migrating along with the waterfowl. This falcon did not have occasion to stoop on prey while I was watching, but I have seen this incredible dive performed in the past.